THE NEW YORKER a decade and a half later. Before busing, Bulger had been a moderately success- ful state legislator, bright, witty, re- served-well thought of whenever anyone outside his district or the State House thought of him, which was not often. Busing thrust him into the lime- light. The man who cared deeply about not being drawn into emotional brawls found himself at the center of the most emotional brawl in the postwar history of Boston. Busing is no longer a red-hot na- tional issue. School choice, which was once a slogan used only by busing's most desperate opponents, has become an educational buzzword, without ra- cial connotations. Busing itself is some- times criticized now by blacks as well as whites. But from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies busing was seen as the only way to break down the seg- regation of Northern cities. To oppose busing was to sin against the light. On June 21, 1974, Judge W. Arthur Garrity, Jr., of the Federal District Court, found that the Boston School Committee, the elected body that ran Boston's public schools, had "know- ingly carried out a systematic program of segregation affecting all of the city's students, teachers and school facili- ties." The first desegregation plan, Phase I, sought to achieve racial bal- ance in schools attended by forty per cent of the city's students. The student body of South Boston High was nota- bly imbalanced: between 1964 and 1974, only three blacks had attended the school. Under Phase I, South Boston High was paired with Roxbury High, in the heart of the black community. Sophomores from Roxbury would be bused to South Boston, while juniors from South Boston would be bused to Roxbury. Seniors at both schools could choose to go to eIther school. On the afternoon of September 12th, the first day of school that fall, buses carrying black students from South Boston High back to Roxbury were pelted with eggs, bottles, and rocks. Things went downhill from there. October 2nd saw a riot in the South Boston High cafeteria. Three days later, members of the Police Tactical Patrol Force, an élite riot squad as- signed to the flash points of the busing controversy, trashed a bar on Dorchester Street in South Boston, where they believed troublemakers hung out; twelve customers went to the hospital with head injuries. Two days after that, a 73 s e e otta Gett UND c 1 !}8f (J und 111( This is Muttsy. whQ pOSes.lU so many different ways. And you can getta Gunt! at all fine department, toy, gift and infant's stores Gund, Inc., P. O. Box H, Edison, New Jersey, 08818 /::;J. '..... .' ..f : : ..: ';;/ ."" w Z w o 0::: ::J o 0:::c:D Zc:D t!: \II C a: e TOUAnEAU MADISON AVE & 52ND ST MADISON AVE & 59TH ST SEVENTH AVE & 34TH ST HAL HARBOUR SHOPS/FLORIDA MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED (212) 758-6234/1-800-348-3332